Many changes have occurred in my 36 years here at OSU. In Physics, where I worked when I started here, the lectures and labs used modern equipment, but were taught in the same basic style used in the late 1800s. Hands-on mechanical or electronic equipment dominated the lab and lecture. Later, films and other audiovisuals were incorporated, followed by computers that augmented labs and lectures. This progression followed the general economic and cultural trends present in American life during this time.

As new technology would arrive, educators would begin questioning which technology would be used, how it would be used and the effect it would have on the learner. Curriculum committees as well as state and federal programs began formal efforts to classify and review many of the new materials available. These efforts were often in opposition to the publishing companies’ claims about their products. Educators considering a text and accompanying materials used reviews and evaluations from these projects as part of their adoption efforts. Unfortunately, this process has been reduced over time and in some aspects, it is nonexistent so that educators are often on their own.

Publishing companies produce vast quantities of materials for the every level of classroom – K-12 to college. Publishers started with the basic text then added transparencies and films, and have grown to computer animations, web sites, and databases correlated with the materials in the text. Now some publishers offer exam banks (paper and electronic) and other tools as companion pieces for their books. The books themselves now can often be custom published with just the chapters needed for your course or those chapters deemed appropriate for the learner. Course packs allow the import of materials into your course via a Learning Management System (LMS) or Content Management System (CMS). In some cases, the students have to pay additional fees to the publisher to use the information in the course or the online site.

These systems can contain the entire course or subsets of the course, like exams. Course materials are generally well done; however exams and exam questions sometimes are created with varying levels of usefulness. Often the complaint is that the,the instructor cannot change the content of the exam questions or reorganize the questions within the exam. Online sites offer similar functionality as the course packs. Often the quiz tool contained in the on-line site cannot report grade data back to the LMS.

Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Content Management System (CMS) take separate applications that control and display things like content (materials, text, and audiovisuals), gradebook, discussions, chat, drop box, and calendar and put these functions into one application. OSU’s first LMS was WebCT, which is now Blackboard. Typically, these early systems existed on individual machines, often under someone’s desk. At OSU you could walk into the TELR/Learning Technology office and you would see an orange extension cord duct taped to the floor. The cord disappeared under the cubical wall on one side and went up the wall into an outlet on the other side. Following the cord, you would walk around the corner and go into the cube. The only thing in the cube was a computer with dead plant sitting on the top of the tower. What was running on the computer and why is there a dead plant on the tower? Well, the computer was running OSU’s instance of WebCT (one of many on campus) and the dead plant, according to local folk lore, was there to keep WebCT running. Such was the state of LMS’s in the early stages. Now, LMS or CMS systems are managed centrally at most colleges and universities.

Since that time, we have moved from WebCT to Carmen (Desire2Learn), which is university wide. It covers all courses on all campuses of OSU. With WebCT, several hundred courses were created by hand and used each quarter. Now, with Carmen we have a bank of 20,000 courses with nearly 4,000 courses being each quarter. Instructors and students are enrolled using data from the Student Information System.

Most of these courses are blended courses, where you meet in actual rooms with some or all of your materials online. You can drop off assignments, use chat, join online discussions, view your grades and take exams/quizzes from anywhere in the world with internet access. Over 90% of all OSU students have at least one course in Carmen each quarter. Smart phones and other handheld devices allow students access to parts of LMS, like their grades.

Education has never been about the technology nor has it been about how to use the technology. Education, self-directed or classroom, has always been about learning. As an educator, you ask questions. What do you need the students to learn? How will you know when the students have learned this concept? What materials do you want to use? Which technologies you are willing to use? What specific needs or requirements are there for this course? It is our job to ask these questions.

These questions have not changed much over the years and their answers determine the shape and style of the course along with our methods for teaching. Good teaching takes time and effort, no matter the subject or the technology employed.

The Online Media Library (https://drm.osu.edu/media) is the new online, digital repository for the antiquated physical library formerly housed in Lord Hall. With VHS cassettes end-of-lifed, VCRs becoming more scarce, and parts increasingly hard to source for repairs, the entire physical collection is being digitized for online delivery to OSU faculty and students. Over 3,100 titles are currently available with many more titles being added every day. Contents of the library range from purely educational titles, such as PBS documentaries, to early silent films to modern theatrical motion pictures.

Consumers of the library span across all disciplines at the university. Just this year the library has already served over 11,000 titles to more than 8,300 individuals.  The Online Media Library is expected to become an invaluable tool to many more faculty as courses are redesigned as part of the Quarters-to-Semesters conversion.

Media Services is excited to be adding two new file formats to the Online Media Library over the summer.  Each title will be available in a very high-quality H.264 file as well as one tailored for streaming delivery to iOS and Android mobile devices.

For more information about the Online Media Library please visit the information page at http://lt.osu.edu/media-library/ or contact Media Services. Assistance with the Online Media Library is available through Media Services including troubleshooting, one-on-one meetings, and in-class support.

Melanie Stegman is a biochemist and Director of the Learning Technologies Program and the Project Director of Immune Attack, 2.0 at the Federation of American Scientists. Stegman spoke to the Game-based learning group on Friday, May 13.

A trailer for the original Immune Attack can be found here: http://www.fas.org/immuneattack/

You can read Melanie’s blog: http://www.fas.org/blog/learningtech/ to find out about educational video games, her research, and the development of Immune Attack 2.

While Melanie did not work on the development of the original Immune Attack, she is instrumental in completing the evaluation of the game and she shared the research findings about how students learned from the game environment.

What are kids learning? Are they learning any vocabulary, immunology, cell biology, or any concepts? She explained the protocol for the research they conducted for Immune Attack 1.  It was a short protocol in order to accommodate all of the restrictions that are involved in working with students in a school environment. Students are learning about the multiple roles of the white blood cells, how these roles require specific proteins, and how cells can send specific signals from one to another.  Additionally, because the graphics in Immune Attack are drawn to match the schematics scientists use, players may in fact gain confidence in their abilities to understand diagrams with similar graphics.  Melanie’s evaluation results will be submitted for publication this summer.

Immune Attack takes advantage of the video game characteristics of immersion and interactivity to make the game into the most realistic schematic of biochemical interactions of white blood cells created so far.

Peter Gerstmann, who attended the meeting said later, “I am excited to see projects like Immune Attack bringing deeper, more important content to games. I especially appreciated your insight that game design and learning design are one and the same.”

A few weeks ago I discovered the Photosynth panorama app for iPhone thanks to The Digital Union’s always-vigilant Jon Diehl.  Photosynth is an application and hosting website from Microsoft that makes interactive panoramas a breeze; all that is needed is the free Photosynth application and a Microsoft Live account for hosting.  In the past I’ve spoken about the use of a Gigapan camera mount to gather the necessary images and angles to stitch together a large panoramic image, however the easy to use Photosynth interface puts this imaging app in a whole different league.

To begin, you start the app and tap the screen to take the first image in your scene. At that point the camera screen indicates the overlap needed as a dotted line, showing where the next photo needs to be taken for a panorama. Simply line up the center dot of your phone screen on that dotted edge, and another shot will be made automatically. Continue filling in the gaps until you have captured all you wish, and hit done for image stitching to begin on your phone. I can’t imagine a simpler interface for building a panoramic photo with tools that fit in your pocket. For a view of the results of this process, take a look at this interactive image from the lobby of Orton Hall:
Photosynth interactive- Orton

The resolution of the iPhone Photosynth app is one stumbling block; with tools like the Gigapan you are making a composite with hundreds of images rather than the ~30 or 40 taken with the wide lens of the iPhone camera. The detail level available in a Gigapan is far higher, and not really comparable to what you get with an iPhone. There can also be issues where edges don’t exactly line up; holding your phone in exactly the same place, as if it were in the center of a turntable, would minimize these errors. That being said, shooting the example panorama of Orton would have taken a serious commitment with a Gigapan camera. My Photosynth image was probably complete in about 3 minutes, which is about the time it would have taken me to level my tripod and mount the Gigapan camera for a more detailed capture.  A full 360 degree Gigapan image can take 45 minutes to an hour, in which time you could have taken many Photosynth images.

Panoramic image of Kentucky Derby Winner's circle

Interactive panoramas can be imbedded in Facebook sites, and flat versions, like the image to the right, can be exported as a .jpg as well. Check out the interactive panorama link below, shot from the Kentucky Derby finish line; although it isn’t quite like being there, viewers can get a good idea of the scene: http://tinyurl.com/derbyphotosynth.

Images can also be placed on Bing Maps; an example is located here:

This seems to be a very useful tool for quick panoramic images, I look forward to seeing images from future generations of iPhones with ever better cameras on board.